The Socialsense blog has been created to support the SACE Society and Culture classes at Thebarton Senior College (TSC )in South Australia. It contains resources, thoughts and learning materials for the courses. SACE Society and Culture courses have been designed to provide students with the opportunity to explore, analyse, consider and discuss the complexities and interconnections of our societies and cultures in the Australian and Global context.

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Wednesday, September 24, 2014

ethical consumerism

Image above: Just one of the many ethical consumerism sites http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/

Ethical consumerism (alternatively called ethical consumption, ethical purchasing, moral purchasing, ethical sourcing, ethical shopping or green consumerism) is a type of consumer activism practiced through 'positive buying' in that ethical products are favoured, or 'moral boycott', that is negative purchasing and company-based purchasing.

The term "ethical consumer", now used generically, was first popularised by the UK magazine the Ethical Consumer, first published in 1989. Ethical Consumer magazine's key innovation was to produce 'ratings tables,' inspired by the criteria-based approach of the then emerging ethical investmentmovement.

The following comes from the ethcial consumer site and involves categorising a range of human rights criteria which can be used to ascertain whether it is ethical to use/buy a product.

1. Oppressive regimes

This includes awareness of companies who have subsidiaries or businesses in countries which we call 'oppressive regimes'. This list of countries was last updated in 2011 using research from Amnesty International, Freedom House and the International Centre for Trade Union Rights. Also taken into account are criticisms relating directly to human rights abuses - such as forcing people off their land to build a pipeline or hiring other agencies which have perpetuated human rights abuses.

· Abuse of the Land rights of existing residents

· All company's products are fair trade

· Banking, investment or other financial services relationship with a company criticised in this category

This not only includes companies that supply weaponry to the armed forces, but also those supplying any goods or services to the armed forces (though the severity of the rating is different!).

4. Irresponsible Marketing

· Companies that have marketed their products in a way that has been criticised for causing physical harm, or is detrimental to health. The most famous company that has consistently been criticised in this area is Nestle which has been criticised for the way that it markets its baby milk products.

· Other examples of irresponsible marketing include drug companies which have been criticised for putting products on the market even after negative results.

Check out the ethical ratings for companies and choose a product to focus on for your advertising campaign.